Fortunately I saw this before going out as I am sure that this would have led ro a capsize in turbulent waters.

Has anyone seen anything like this?

We do keep the boat out on brackish water overnight on dock "whips" with the pontoons folded in. Sometimes the water gets quite rough and the boat can rock a good deal while moored. We are wondering if the combination of vertical force and salinity may have weakened this fitting and resulted in the shearing. Is it recommended that the TI not be kept in the brackish or salt water for 2-3 says under these circumstances.

We also had tried out an electric trolling motor for a short period of time. It was mounted to one side on the back with a counterweight on the other side; we had the batteries in the front compartment with wires running to the back. Does anyone think that the weight of the trolling motor/counterweight/battery may have contributed to this shearing? We removed the motor while the TI was moored overnight.

If I understand you correctly, the part that separated was the plastic bolt that holds the brace onto the aka. (The picasa link to the picture is not working, so it hard to be sure)There is a spare for this part on each aka brace, just aft of the connection to the aka.This part is designed to fail by shearing, if, say , the ama hits something like a buoy or dock, to prevent damage to something else.Because the part is plastic, I do not think salt water would have anything to do with this.Because you say your amas were folded in, in which case the brace was presumably folded back onto its holder on the aka, I do not think anything that happened when your boat was moored had anything to do with this.I think others have reported this connection shearing without them being aware of impact, presumably due to accumulated wear, and some replace the plastic bolt regularly as a precaution. I have one fail due to impact, and I intend to take the bolts out for inspection before setting off into the wilderness, but otherwise no problem, though I carry spares in addition to those on the aka brace.On recent models, the brace and aka are held together by a plastic tether, to prevent simply losing the brace if the bolt shears. unfortunately, the tether is short and not terribly strong, so it may break too. Brendan Castile, Hobie's warranty manager, suggested that attaching this to the bungie under the ama might provide a more expansible tether, and thus be better. Unfortunately, the aka side is held by a rivet, so it is not easy to change. On my older AI, where there is no such tether (or aka bungee), I followed advice from some on the forums and tethered the brace to the aka with a light nylon line.Brendan also mentioned to me that they are thinking of replacing the nut on this bolt with a split ring, so that it would be easier to get the spare bolt out without tools. Something we could do ourselves...However, I have to wonder if I have misinterpreted your problem, not having the picture, since this is covered in Hobies instructions.

I think he was referring to that bolt. On mine, I have filed the O-ring slot vertically, so a 2mm zip-tie fits through the bolt, as those O-rings play havoc with my nails (only jokin' LOL). I like the idea of just slipping a zip-tie through the new bolt and locking it on itself... not tools, no hassle.

rhyolken:Chances are that bolt was sheared during either handling (I have had 'helpers' trying to help me with the boat pulling on the AMA's and shearing the bolts), or some sort of impact with the dock. It's easy just to put the spare on and off you go, don't worry about it, I have sheared off quite a few of them, it just happens once in a while. I would rather have that bolt shear vs breaking an AMA brace or AMA. I typically tie a 3/16 dia nylon safety rope thru the metal cleat in the center of the left side AMA, pass it in front of the left front AKA brace on the hull, then back behind the mast (so it doesn't interfere with the mast), then around the front of the right AKA brace on the hull, I then tie it off to the metal cleat in the center of the right AMA. What this does is if the plastic bolt does shear while sailing it prevents the AMA from folding in so you can stop furl the sail and make the repair without going for a swim. The nylon rope is stretchy so if you really do hit a dock or something and shear the bolt off, the nylon rope will still give and you shouldn't break anything else.

As far as mooring your TI off shore, I do it all the time. We recently stayed down near Islamorada for a week and I kept my TI moored just offshore for the entire week without any problems, just make sure you are away from docks, and or have it tied so it can't bounce off the docks in the waves and tides.

Here is a pic of my TI moored for the week, it was great for us, we just left it there for the week and went out sailing 2-3 times a day every day.

Here is a pic of the safety rope in place (in the lower left corner of the pic), I just keep the rope on the boat all the time, and just stuff the ends into the mesh pockets when storing the boat. When setting the boat up you just clip the clips onto the AMA and off you go. You can probably just as easily just tie two separate ropes to the left and right front AKA braces attached to the hull. I also had brace ropes tied to the rear AKA braces as well for a while creating a truss type brace system, but ended up removing the rear ones (overkill I thought). Make sure you use lightweight nylon (stretchy type) rope. This mod also keeps you AMA's from bouncing up and down in the waves which is annoying, and if one of the bungies fails (the bungies that hold the AMA's on), the AMA won't fall off.

Can someone let me know how I can post a picture so I can show you what happened and provide some updates? I tried to follow the instructions in the FAQs but did not seem to be able to get them to work.

• You must store your photos on a site such as Photobucket http://s239.photobucket.com/ PB is free up to a fairly generous storage limit. • Upload your pictures onto PB. • Slide your pointer over a photo and you will see a "gear" icon appear in the upper right corner. • Slide your pointer over the gear icon and a menu will appear. • From the menu, pick off "links" with your left pointer button.• A window will appear with 4 url options. Click the "Direct" link with your left pointer button--momentarily a "copied" appears. You have now copied the link. • Paste the link into your Hobie forum post. • When it is pasted into your post, highlight it, and click on the "Img" button above to complete the job. When your post is previewed or submitted, your Photobucket picture will appear in your post.

Keith

_________________2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein